Tafsir of At-Takweer 81:18

It is the beginning of the day, and thus corresponds to the beginning of the night. It is said that its being taken to mean "when it retreats" is more appropriate, due to the adjacency between the retreating of the night and the breathing of the morning; thus, there is a relationship of proximity between them. The intended meaning of the morning's breathing—according to more than one commentator—is its illumination and radiance. In Al-Kashshaf, it is stated that when the morning approaches, a spirit and a breeze arrive with its arrival, and this is metaphorically termed "breathing." Others say the breathing of the morning is a metaphor, specifically a borrowed metaphor (isti'arah), because since the breath is a specific wind that relieves the heart of expansion and contraction, that breeze is likened to a breath and the term is applied to it metaphorically. The morning is made to be the one breathing because of its coincidence with it; thus, in the expression, there is an explicit metaphor (isti'arah musarrahah) and a figurative attribution (tajuwuz fi al-isnad).

The outward sense of some scholars' words suggests that after the metaphor, it becomes a metonymy (kinayah) for illumination. It has also been suggested that there is a hypothetical metaphor (makniyyah) and an imaginative one (takhayyuliyyah), wherein the morning is likened to a walker coming from a great distance, and breathing—intended as the blowing of its breeze—is attributed to it metaphorically by way of imagination, as in "they violate the covenant of God."

The Imam said: The day, by the shrouding of the dark night, is like one who is distressed, and just as he finds relief in breathing, so too does it find release from the darkness; its emergence is as if it is finding release from distress into relief. This is more subtle than what was established in Al-Kashshaf, as is evident. It is also permissible to say that when the night shrouded the day and pushed it beneath the earth, it was as if it killed it and buried it; thus, the appearance of its light was made to be like the breathing that indicates life, which is similar to what was narrated from the Imam. It is also said that "breathes" means "expands" and "extends" until it becomes the day.

The apparent meaning is that the breathing in the verse refers to the second, true dawn, whose light spreads transversely along the horizon, unlike the first, false dawn, which appears elongated—its upper part brighter than the rest—before it vanishes and is followed by darkness, or decreases until it is submerged into the second (according to the claim of some astronomers), or its state varies in this, sometimes one way and sometimes another, depending on the seasons and latitudes (as has been said). This false dawn is called 'arid (appearing). In the report of Muslim: "Do not let the adhan of Bilal nor this 'arid (the false dawn) deceive you, until the dawn spreads," meaning until that vertical column spreads across the horizons.

The words of some eminent scholars suggest that there is a reference to the false dawn here, as one said: "It is understood from calling the first dawn 'arid (an obstacle/appearing) for the second, that the second dawn—which arises from the ray—is obstructed near its appearance, as is suggested by the 'breathing' in the Almighty's saying: 'And the morning when it breathes.' Upon that obstruction, something of it breathes out like a vent." What is witnessed in that which is obstructed, if a portion of it emerges all at once, is that its beginning is more intense than its end, and from this, the cause of the column's length and the illumination of its upper part is known—to the end of his statement, though there is debate regarding this.

Furthermore, the apparent meaning is that the morning's breathing and its illumination are caused by the sun's proximity to the eastern horizon by a specific measure, which is famously eighteen degrees. The Imam's assertion that this would necessitate—based on the earth's sphericity and the sun always illuminating more than half of it—the appearance of light and the morning's breathing once the sun departs from the nadir of the meridian circle (which is midnight), is remote, and reality is contrary to it; it is a questioning of what is nearly self-evident, and it involves negligence regarding the conditions of the earth's shadow and the reflection of rays from the eyes of the inhabitants of its regions. So reflect, and be not negligent.

The waw in the Almighty's saying "And the night" and "And the morning," according to what is reported from Ibn Jinni, is for conjunction. Idha (when) is not governed by the verb of the oath because the meaning would be corrupted, as restriction by time is not intended, whether past or future. Rather, it is—as chosen by more than one scholar—governed by an implicit noun of magnitude, such as "the greatness of," because oaths by a thing are an exaltation of it. It is as if it were said: "I do not swear by the greatness of the night at the time it sets, and by the greatness of the day at the time it breathes," similar to their saying: "I marvel at the lion when it attacks," for the meaning is not to restrict the marveling to his terror and greatness at that specific time.

'Isam al-Din said: It should be made a restriction for the object of the oath; that is, "I swear by the night, being as it is when it sets," and the state (hal) is implicit, meaning: "I regard its being at that time." The scholar Al-Taftazani stated in Al-Talwih, regarding the like of this, that idha is a substitute for the night, for the intention is not to condition the oath and restrict it to that time. For this reason, the verifiers rejected its being a state (hal) from the night, because that also would result in restricting the oath to that time. What relates to this position will also come, God willing, in the interpretation of Surah Al-Shams.